ELK: Daydreams
Indoor Shoes, 37 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5

Elk play music that could be called “drunk rock.” Every moment on their sophomore album Daydreams is a little loose, a little sloppy and slightly off-kilter. That’s not to say they’re incompetent musicians, but their songs waver between effortless and eventless.

The Toronto/Niagara band take some obvious cues from early garage rock bands, those that birthed a genre without realizing it. Lead singer Mike Price is a dead ringer for Seeds frontman Sky Saxon, with the same goofy romantic sentiments (“You know she’s outta sight!”). But while those ‘60s pioneers needed hits to survive, indie labels demand far less. As a result Daydreams takes more effort to appreciate than it probably should, the band sometimes settling for melodies that feel simple without necessarily being catchy.

But when Elk get on track, it’s bliss – the piano-driven pop of “Come Home” and the near-perfect, short and simple “Helpless” being immediate highlights. Like with any good daydream the thing’s a bit blurry, with moments of lucidity shining through.

CHRIS BROWN: Fortune

RCA, 55 minutes 

Rating: 2.5/5

Chris Brown isn’t the first pop star accused of hitting a woman. But something about the guy’s defensive and persecutory attitude has made it hard to separate his music from the scandal, especially when he makes references to it in ambiguous, offhand ways. Like, say, releasing a song called “Don’t Judge Me.”

To Brown’s credit he seems, for whatever reason, invigorated by the bad press. His singles are as commercially viable as they ever were, he hasn’t alienated high-profile guest stars, and remains about as forward-thinking as it’s possible to be in pop music. Horrid Europop-aping lead single “Turn Up the Music” aside Fortune is an easy listen. Brown provides a counterpoint to real hip hop artists like Nas (“Mirage”) and Whiz Khalifa (“Till I Die”), and plays it more profane than his R&B rivals in “Bassline.”  

Unfortunately, no one needs to hear the soft-rock confessional “4 Years Old” or the aforementioned “Don’t Judge Me,” which warns a woman about “rumours” and “pictures online” without overtly referring to what you’re all thinking about. If Brown stopped trying to pretend his profile hasn’t been defined by awful behavior, maybe his softer side wouldn’t be so hard to accept. 

ABANDON ALL SHIPS: Infamous

Universal, 33 minutes 

Rating: 1.5/5 



Abandon All Ships aren’t infamous, exactly, unless you consider having the worst haircuts on MuchMusic a sign of infamy.

Their quest to be seen as both badass and teen-friendly has bred one of the weirdest major label albums in recent memory, an ungodly hybrid of emo, thrash metal, boy-band pop, hip hop and electro. I honestly don’t know what to make of it. It’s not good, in any way shape or form, but it’s so determined to cross-pollinate styles and cover the quadrants of commercial radio in single songs that listening to it becomes an oddly entertaining experience.

Good or bad, I would very much like to know who Infamous is for. Young females, going by the band’s image, but does any girl like to be seduced and yelled at in the same song? How does one hand bang, make out, and grind simultaneously? And what stupid name do you give the genre – scream-pop?